n and bury the care and guile,
For the day when the sleepers shall rise.

Oh, the dews and the moths and the daisy red,
The larks and the glimmers and flows!
The lilies and sparrows and daily bread,
And the something that nobody knows!

The princess stopped, her wheel stopped, and she laughed. And her
laugh was sweeter than song and wheel; sweeter than running brook and
silver bell; sweeter than joy itself, for the heart of the laugh was
love.

'Come now, Curdie, to this side of my wheel, and you will find me,' she
said; and her laugh seemed sounding on still in the words, as if they
were made of breath that had laughed.

Curdie obeyed, and passed the wheel, and there she stood to receive
him!--fairer than when he saw her last, a little younger still, and
dressed not in green and emeralds, but in pale blue, with a coronet of
silver set with pearls, and slippers covered with opals that gleamed
every colour of the rainbow. It was some time before Curdie could take
his eyes from the marvel of her loveliness. Fearing at last that he was
rude, he turned them away; and, behold, he was in a room that was for
beauty marvellous! The lofty ceiling was all a golden vine, Whose
great clusters of carbuncles, rubies, and chrysoberyls hung down like
the bosses of groined arches, and in its centre hung the most glorious
lamp that human eyes ever saw--the Silver Moon itself, a globe of
silver, as it seemed, with a heart of light so wondrous potent that it
rendered the mass translucent, and altogether radiant.

The room was so large that, looking back, he could scarcely see the end
at which he entered; but the other was only a few yards from him--and
there he saw another wonder: on a huge hearth a great fire was burning,
and the fire was a huge heap of roses, and yet it was fire. The smell
of the roses filled the air, and the heat of the flames of them glowed
upon his face. He turned an inquiring look upon the lady, and saw that
she was now seated in an ancient chair, the legs of which were crusted
with gems, but the upper part like a nest of daisies and moss and green
grass.

'Curdie,' she said in answer to his eyes, 'you have stood more than one
trial already, and have stood them well: now I am going to put you to a
harder. Do you think you are prepared for it?'

'How can I tell, ma'am,' he returned, 'seeing I do not know what it is,
or what preparation it needs? Judge me yourself, ma'am.'

'It needs only